I came across this really cool little piece of freeware in PCMag the other night – SyncToy:

SyncToy is a free PowerToy designed by Microsoft that provides an easy to use graphical user interface that can automate synchronizing files and folders. It is written using Microsoft’s .NET framework.

SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another. SyncToy can keep track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

I run 2 big machines for media. One is running 24X7 and holds a copy of all files, serving up media to other machines and the 2 XBOX extenders. The other machine is RAID protected, runs 4GB RAM, a big processor and is the workhorse for doing video/photo editing, etc. It is also holds the master copy of all data (In other words, nothing external touches it).

This is a really handy piece of kit.